Most modern convenience faucet spouts, such as used in bathrooms, for example, have a threaded end located at the outlet thereof for the purpose of threadedly mating with a spout attachment. Most spout attachments are designed to be attractive in appearance, to create a desirable flow pattern, and sometime to admix air with the stream of flowing water. It is known to attach various different flow control apparatus at the threaded end of a faucet as evidenced by the following prior art: U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,133,350, 3,995,664, and 4,119,276.
Of the above prior art, Nelson, U.S. Pat. No. 3,995,664 requires an elastomeric member to sealingly engage the inside wall surface of a housing within which it is mounted. The elastomer bears against a series of radial ports formed in opposed disks to thereby control the flow of water therethrough in response to upstream pressure variations. Nelson, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,113,350 and 4,119,276 are similar in construction. Reference is made to these patents and to the art cited therein for future background of this invention.
It is difficult to provide a flow control device with a suitable elastomer having a satisfactory spring force which can endure hot chlorinated water, and especially hot chlorinated water having an appreciable salt content, such as is often encountered in large cities, for example. Accordingly, it would be desirable to have made available an all metal, pressure compensating, flow control device which can be retrofitted or initially installed at the outlet end of most convenience faucets. Moreover, it would be desirable to be able to fabricate the internal working parts of the flow control device from stainless steel and other desirable heat and corrosive resistant alloys. A pressure compensating flow control device having these desirable novel attributes is the subject of the present invention.